PSC-Junts agreement to move forward with the Thyssen Museum in Barcelona

BarcelonaThe project to house the future Carmen Thyssen Museum in Barcelona's Palau Marcet – the former Comedia cinema – has overcome its final hurdle at City Hall. Jordi Martí Galbis, leader of Junts per Barcelona in the council, announced on Thursday an agreement with Jaume Collboni's administration to give the green light to the new facility in exchange for some modifications. The main change is that the space will lose 1,000 square meters of commercial space compared to the initial project. "The museum will unequivocally be the primary use of the building," Martí emphasized at a press conference. Specifically, the agreement stipulates that the future museum will have a maximum of 1,700 square meters.² commercial uses, and not the 2,750 previously planned. The agreement also implies that the modification of the Metropolitan General Plan (MPGM) required by the project—which will be provisionally approved in this month's plenary session—explicitly prohibits the restaurant inside the museum from having a street entrance.

The project that will be put to a vote also reformulates other aspects of the initial project. One of the most notable is the upper volume. The initial sketch, created jointly by the Barcelona-based architectural firm OUA and the German firm Casper Mueller Kneer, caused a stir due to a white overhang that practically doubled the building's volume. Now, as explained by Martí and the Junts councilors Damià Calvet and Joan Rodríguez, that roof (see image below) will be replaced by another that does not exceed the building's height and, they said, will be a light blue color that will blend much better into the city's skyline. It will, however, cover the two party walls of the adjacent buildings that are currently visible and which Calvet considered "ugly".

Martí also argued that the agreement strengthens the heritage protection of the Palau Marcet because it establishes the maintenance and restoration of the façades, as well as the restoration of the historical composition of the chamfered corner by recovering the original entrance arches instead of some of the current doors in the ground-floor shops. For all these reasons, Junts has defended the agreement with the government of Jaume Collboni, which follows the path they recently reached for the renovation of the Capitol Club"We have the strongest guarantees to carry out a project that we believe enriches the city's quality cultural offerings," he said, arguing that the future Thyssen Museum in the Catalan capital will project Barcelona internationally as a cultural destination, generate skilled employment, and benefit businesses and restaurants around Passeig de Gràcia.

A controversial project

With the support of Junts, Collboni managed to push through a controversial project that faced opposition from his two main partners in this term—Esquerra and Barcelona en Comú—as well as from neighborhood associations and the College of Architects. The latter had even sent a written to the mayor, asking him to halt the project and open a participatory process and a competition of ideas to improve it.

This Thursday, after learning the content of the agreement between the PSC and Junts, the Comuns and Esquerra have redoubled their criticism of the project. BComú councilor Guillé López warned that it is a "speculative operation disguised as a cultural project, in a location already saturated with visitors." From ERC, Eva Baró lamented that 1,700 square meters of commercial use is still "disproportionate" and regretted that there is no plan to alleviate tourist congestion.